Anticreeper.



H. H. SPONENBURG.

ANTICREEPER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 14, I9l6.

1,205,404. Patented Nov. 21,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

H. H. SPONENBURG.

ANTICREEPER.

APPLICATlON FILED FEB. 14. 1916.

Patented Nov. 21, 1916.

2SHEETS-SHE ET 2.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HIRAM H. SPONENBURG, 0F GURNEE, ILLINOIS, 'ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS,

TO OTTO R. BARNETT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.v

ANTI CREE-IEEB Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 21, 1916.

Application filed February 14, 1916. Serial No. 78,168.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HIRAM H. SPONEN- BURG, a citizen of the United States, residing at Gurnee, in the county of Lake and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Anticreepers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to devices commonly called anti-creepers or rail anchors, the purpose of which is to check the tendency of railroad rails to creep longitudinally in the direction of the trafiic or down a grade. These devices have been variously constructed but all the difl'erent types involve, in effect, a rail engaging or clamping part or parts adapted to take a. firm hold on the rail, the base flange of the rail, for example, and a part which bears against or is engaged with a fixed element of the road bed, for instance, one of the cross ties. As these devices been heretofore constructed, there has always been a fixed relation between the rail clamping means and the tie abutting member. forming these two functions have formed a single structure,-when the device is engaged with the rail, so that they move together and with the rail when the, rail contracts and expands longitudinally .due to temperature changes. For example, if the anti-creeper consists of two members having a wedging relation with each other or of two jaws bolted together, one of the wedging members or one of the jaws will ordinarily be provided with a flange or similar part which bears against the cross tie. As a result of this construction the hold of the anti-creeper on the rail is likely to be disturbed by a movement of the anti-creeper backwardly away from the tie. take place, for example, when the rail shrinks at alow temperature. The tie abutting flange, in such case, may be solidly frozen into the. ballast or, in any event, the ballast is likely to interfere with it's free movement away from' the tie. This tends to disturb the hold of the anti-creeper on the rail by twistingor skewing the device or by giving one of the members of the devicea.

retrograde movement with respect to the other in case the anti-creeper is of the wedge type.

The object of my invention is to prov de ananti-creeper in which the rail engagmg That is, the parts of the device per-' Such movement will element, which may consist of one or more parts, is freely movable with respect to the tie abutting element having. a free sliding non-wedging engagement therewith so that when the rail engaging element moves. with the rail the tie abutting element may remain stationary and quite unaffected by such movement of the other part of the device. In other words, the railanchor consists of two elements, one which may form, in effect, a part of the rail and the otherwhich may be stationary with and essentially a part of the roadbed.

It will be obvious that this principle of construction might be applied in a number of different ways to a great many different types of anti-creeper. For the purpose of illustrating the invention I have shown it as applied to two different types. I do not wish, however, to be understood as limiting the scope of the invention to any particular type of, anti-creeper.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a side elevation of an anti-creeper constructed in accordance with my invention shown as applied to a rail which is'illustrated in cross section. Fig. 2 is asectional view on line 22 of Fig, 1. Figs. 3 and 4 are views, in perspective, of the two parts of the anchor. Fig. 5 is a view, similar to Fig. 1 showing the application of the invention to a difierent type of anti-creeper." Fig. '6 is a plan view of the parts shown in -Fig. 5, and Fig. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view on line 7-7 of Fig. 5. Y

Like characters of reference designate like parts in the several'figures of the drawings.

Referring first to Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, 10 designates a railroad rail and 11 one of the ties on which the rail is supported. The rail anchor shown in these figures consists of a rail engaging member 12 and a tie abutting .member 13. The rail engaging memberconsistsof a metal bar with its ends turned over to form jaws 14, 15. The bar is designed to be shrunk on the base flange T 16 of the rail so that when applied it forms, in effect, a part of the rail. The tie abutting member consists of a plate which bears against the tie 11 and a rearwardly projecting tongue 17 which lies in a channel 18 in the bar 12. The tongue 17 is preferably formed with a bend or off-set 19 providing a shoulder against which the bar 12 bears when. the anti-creeper is in operative position. Preferably the channel 18 1s at one end of the bar so that the tie abutting mem- 7 her lies on one side of the median longitudinal line of the rail. Any tendency which the rail may have to creep through the holding means 12, let, 15 will be checked by the cramping of the holding means on the rail base, resulting from the fact that the point of support of the bar is nearer one end than the other. As shown in Fig. 2, the tie abutting plate 13 is embedded in the ballast 20. In most cases this will be so to a greater or less extent. In winter time when the ground freezes the tie abutting member will be to all intents and purposes incapable of movement in either direction. Therail will necessarily shorten a. trifle at a. low temperature during the night hours, for example. In such case, however, the rail engaging element 12, 14:, 15 will simply move backwardly away from the shoulder 19 without regard to the tie abutting member. IVhen the rail expands again, or after the rail has crept enough to make up for the contraction, the tie engaging element will be brought into contact again with shoulder 19 so as to prevent any further forward creep. If the tie abutting element and rail engaging element consisted of a single rigid structure it will be obvious that the opposing stresses exerted against the device due to the shrinkage of the rail and the resistance of the frozen ground to any movement of the tie abutting member, would be likely to eventually disturb the hold of the rail engaging element on the rail, destroying the effectiveness of the device as an anti-creeper.

The advantages of my invention will perhaps be more obvious when. the invention is shown as applied to anti-creepers of the wedgetype. In Figs. 5 to 7 inclusive I have shown 'onersuch application of the invention, the anti-creeper in question being, except for the movable relation between the rail engaging element and the tie abutting element, the same as that disclosed in the co-pending application of Edward Laas, Serial No. 80,658, filed February 26, 1916. The device consists of three parts, a bar or yoke 21. provided with-jaws 22, 23; a spring wedge 2a which intervenes between the base flange 16 of the rail and jaw 23; and a tie abutting member 25 consisting of a plate -which bears against the face of tie 11 and a tongue 26 which intervenes between the bottom of the rail base and yoke 21, lying in a channel 27 formed in the yoke 21.

The end of the yoke, which terminates in the jaw 22, is narrower than the other end which, it will be seen, bears directly against the plate 25 so that the jaw 22 stands out of contact with the tie. As a consequence any tendency ofthe rail to creep through the yoke is self checked because of the resultant rocking movement of the yoke. The wedge 2a is driven firmly between the jaw 23 and the edge of the rail base, holding the yoke in clamping engagement with said rail base, the reliability of this engagement being increased by the fact that the elasticity of the wedge absorbs vibration and by the clamped might and would, to a. certain eX- tent at least, tend to draw the wedge backwardly out of the jaw 23. Such possibility is entirely eliminated by making the tie abutting member separate from the yoke and the latter freely movable with respect to the tie abutting member, in other words, by constructing the anti-creeper so that it will consist, in effect, of two parts, one,'the rail clamping means which is in function a part of the rail, and the other, the tie abutting element -which is functionally a part of the roadbed or may become so in case the flange or foot 25 is embedded in the ballast. The engagement of the rail clamping elements with the tie. abutting element is a freely sliding, non-wedging connection, the rail engaging means being equally effective regardless of its bosition relative to the tie abutting element. The grip of the device on the rail, in other words, is not impaired by the backward movement of the rail clamping element. The tongue forms no part of the rail engaging element. It merely acts as a guide to maintain a. relationship between the two functionally distinct parts of the anticreeper. 7

From the foregoing it will be realized that I do not consider my invention as limited to the particular types of rail anchor shown and described. In ,fact, the basic idea of the invention might be applied to a rail anchor of almost any sort.

I claim:

1. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting elementand a rail clamping element adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the' its rail holding position, said rail clamping element interfitting with and being freely movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

3. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element and a rail clamping element adapted to bear against said tie abutting element at a point adjacent one edge of the rail base, said rail -clamping element inter-fitting with and be ing movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

l. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element and a rail clamping element which extends under the base of the rail engaging opposite edges thereof, and is adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the rail engaged thereby from creepin said rail engaging element interfitting with and being movable with respect to said tie abutting element from and to said position, and adapted to have an engagement with the rail which is unaffected by the position of said rail engaging element with respect to said tie abutting element.

An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element adapted to stand atone side of the median longitudinal line of the rail base, and a rail clamping element adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the rail engaged thereby from creeping, said rail clamping element being movable with respect to said tie abutting element from and to said position.

6. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element adapted to stand at one side of the median longitudinal line of the rail base, and a rail clamping element which extends under the base of the rail engaging opposite edges thereof and is adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the rail engaged thereby from creeping, said rail clamping elementbeing movable with respect to the tie abuttingelement from and to said position.

7. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element adapted to stand at one side of the median longitudinal line of the rail base, under the same, and a rail clamping element which extends under the base of the rail engaging opposite'edges thereof and is adapted to bear against a part of said tie abutting element in its operative rail holding position, said rail clamping element being movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

8. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element consisting of a tie abutting flange and a tongue extending backwardly therefrom, and a rail clamping element which is movable lengthwiseof said tongue from and to its operative rail holding position without affecting its engagement with the rail.

9. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element consisting of a tie abutting flange and a tongue extending backwardly therefrom, and a rail clamping element which is movable lengthwise of said tongue, said tie abutting element being formed so as to provide an abutment for said rail clamping element.

10. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element consisting of a tie abutting flange and a tongue extending backwardly therefrom, and a rail clamping element which is movable with a freely sliding movement lengthwise of said tongue in opposite directions, said tongue being formed with a shoulder against which said rail clamping element bears in the operative position thereof.

11. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element con sisting of a tie abutting flange and a tongue extending backwardly therefrom which is adapted to lie under the rail base, and a rail clamping element extending around said rail base which is provided with a channel in which said tongue lies.

12. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element consisting of a tie abutting flange and a tongue extending backwardly therefrom which is adapted to lie under the rail base, and a rail clamping element extending around said rail base which is provided with a channel on one side of the median longitudinal line of the rail base.

13. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a tie abutting element consisting of a tie abutting flange and a tongue extending backwardly therefromwhich is adapted to lie under the rail base and is formed to provide a shoulder, and a rail clamping element extending around said rail base and adapted to bear against said shoulder which is provided with a channel in which said tongue lies providing a freely sliding engagement between said parts.

14. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a member adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed, and means interfitting with and freely movable with respect to said member which engages the rail.

15. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a member adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed, and means interfitting with and freely movable with respect to said member which engages the rail and is adapted, in its rail holding position, to bear against a part of said fixed member.

16. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail comprising a member adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed and provided tend freely through with a tongue lying lengthwise of the rail, and means freely movable lengthwise of said tongue in opposite directions having a fixed relation with the rail.

17. An anti-creeping device for a railroad. rail comprising a member adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed and provided with a tongue lying lengthwise of the rail under the rail base, and means freely movable lengthwise of said tongue in opposite directions having a fixed relation with the rail.

18. An anti-creeping device comprising two rail engaging members having a wedging engagement with each other and the rail, and an element adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed, and a movable interfitting relation with one of said wedging members.

19. An anti-creeping device comprising a bar extending under the base of the rail and provided at opposite ends with jaws, a wedge adapted to be driven between one of said jaws and one edge of the base of the rail, and a member adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed and provided with a tongue which intervenes between said bar and the base flange of the rail.

20. An anti-creeping device comprising a bar adapted to extend under the base flange of a rail provided at opposite ends with jaws and formed between said jaws with a channel, a tie abutting member comprising a tie abutting flange and a tongue adapted to extend freely through said channel, and a wedge intervening between one of said jaws and the rail.

21. An anti-creeping device comprising a bar adapted to extend under the base flange of a rail provided at opposite ends with jaws and formed between said jaws with a channel, a tie abutting member comprising a tie abutting flange and a tongue adapted to ex said channel, and a spring wedge intervening between one of said aws and the rail.

'22. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting member engaging one surface only of the tie, and a rail clamping element adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the rail engaged'thereby from creeping, said clamping element being freely movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

23. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element engaging one surface only of the tie, and a rail clamping element adapted to bear against said tie abutting element when in its rail holding position, said rail clamping element being freely movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

2.4. An anti-creeping device for a. railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element ongaging one surface only of the tie, and a rail clamping element adapted to bear against said tie abutting element at a point adjacent one edge of the rail base, said rail clamping element being freely movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

:25. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element engaging one surface only of the tie, and a rail clamping element which extends under the base of the rail engaging opposite sides thereof and is adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the rail engaged thereby from creeping, said rail engaging element being movable with respect to said tie abutting element from and to said position and adapted to have an engagement with the rail which is unaffected by the position of said rail engaging element with respect to said tie abutting element.

26. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a member adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed and engaging one surface only of a tie, and means freely movable with respect to said member which engages the rail. 7

27. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a member adapted to have a fixed relation with the road bed and engaging one surface only of a tie, and means freely movable with respect to said member which engages the rail and is adaptechin its rail holding position, to bear against a part of said fixed member.

28. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising two rail engaging devices having a wedging engagement with each other and the rail, and an element adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed and to engage one surface only of a tie, said element having a movable relation with one of said wedging members.

29. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element wholly below the upper surface of the tie, and a rail clamping element adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the rail engaged thereby from creeping, said rail clamping element being freely movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

30. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element wholly below the upper surface of the tie, and a rail clamping element adapted to bear against said tie abutting element when in its rail holding position, said rail clamping element being freely movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position. V

31. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element wholly below the upper surface of the tie,

and a rail clamping element adapted to bear a ainst said tie abutting element at a point at jacent one edge of the rail base, said rail clamping element being movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

32. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element wholly below the upper surface of the tie, and a rail clamping element which extends under the base of the rail engaging opposite sides thereof and is adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the rail engaged thereby from creeping, said rail engaging element being movable with respect to said tie abutting element from and to said position and adapted to have an engagement with the rail which is unafiected by the position of said rail engaging element with respect to said tie abutting element.

33. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a member wholly below the upper surface of the tie and adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed, and means freely movable with respect to said member which engages the rail.

34. Ananti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a member wholly below the upper surface of the tie and adaptedto have a fixed relation with the roadbed, and means freely movable with respect to said member which engages the rail and is adapted, in its rail holding position, to bear against a part of said fixed member.

35. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising two rail engaging members having a wedging engagement with each other and the rail, and an element wholly below the upper surface of the tie and adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed, said element having a movable relation with one of said wedging members.

36. An anticreeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element wholly on one side of the tie, and a rail clamping element adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the rail engaged thereby from creeping, said rail clamping element being freely movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

37 An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element wholly on one side of the tie, and a rail clamping element adapted to bear against said tie abutting element when in its rail holding position, said rail clamping element being freely movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

38. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element wholly on one side of the tie, and a rail clam in element ada ted to bear a ainst said tie abutting element at a point adjacent one edge of the rail base, said rail clamping element being movable with respect to the tie abutting element from and to said position.

39. An anticreping device for a railroad rail, comprising a tie abutting element wholly on one side of the tie, and a rail clamping element which extends under the base of the rail engaging opposite edges thereof, and is adapted to assume an operative position in which it holds the rail engaged thereby from creeping, said rail engaging element being movable with respect to said tie abutting element from and to said position, and adapted to have an engagement with the rail which is unaffected by the position of said rail engaging element with respect to said tie abutting element.

40. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a member wholly on one side of the tie and adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed, and means freely movable with respect to said member which engages the rail.

41. A11 anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a member wholly on one side of the tie and adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed, and means freely movable with respect to said member which engages the rail and is adapted, in its rail holding position, to bear against a part of said fixed member.

42. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising two rail engaging members having a wedging engagement with each other and the rail, and an element wholly on one side of the tie adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed, and a movable relation with one of said wedging members.

43. An anti-creeping device for a railroad rail, comprising a member wholly on one side of the tie and adapted to have a fixed relation with the roadbed, and means interfitting with and freely movable with respect to said member which engages the rail.

HIRAM H. SPONENBURG.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for-five cents each, by addressing the Gommissioner of Patents Washington, D C. 

